Judo Train wrestling before judo?

[Katsymot]

Hi everyone
Is there any worth to training wrestling for a year before starting judo? Like picking up some wrestling habbits first? Would learning how to guard your back for example be something useful to practise before starting judo or will the habbits not matter much

 

[ChickenBrother]

The answer depends on your training goals and the relative quality of instruction and training partners at each gym. If you're asking if training wrestling for a year will make you better at Judo vs. actually training Judo during that time, the answer is no.

In the U.S. the most prominent grappling ruleset is folkstyle (scholastic) wrestling, followed by BJJ then probably freestyle wrestling and Judo way at the bottom. Anecdotally I think even Greco Roman wrestling (not very popular in the U.S.) is more popular than Judo.

If your goal is to be a well-rounded grappler, you will eventually train and cross-train other rulesets. But if your goal is to compete in a single ruleset, you're best served focusing on that ruleset. As a martial art, my main issue with IJF Judo is the lack of leg grabs which have been off the table since 2013 and which the IJF unfortunately did not bring back for this Olympic cycle. But if you want to get good at turning throws, foot sweeps and trips in gi, you need to train Judo. If you want to get good at playing and passing guard, you need to train BJJ. If you want to get good at no gi takedowns and top control, train wrestling.

Unless you've already decided to focus on Judo, I'd try out both gyms and others in your area and start with the one that has the best instruction and class schedule for you, independent of ruleset.

 

[Deaths Head]

Hi everyone
Is there any worth to training wrestling for a year before starting judo? Like picking up some wrestling habbits first? Would learning how to guard your back for example be something useful to practise before starting judo or will the habbits not matter much

Most people are going to know wresting bf Judo ,so if you have access to wresting you want that first bc you have to know your opponents weaknesses and strength,even if you wind up being better at Judo you’ll have to nullify someone’s wresting first in all likelihood , Judo is not as common you can add that in later .

 

[Thrawn33]

What are your goals?

My 4 years of varsity wrestling definatly gave me the mental toughness to train hard, the aggressiveness and the mental edge to compete before I started Judo.

I did well in novice division and earned Sankyu quickly. I was crushing newbies and hobbiests with sheer force. In hindsight it did nothing for me.

HOWEVER, relying on those same advantages probably hindered my overall growth in Judo. Once I started playing in the advanced division I was getting stomped...bad... competed for a year without winning a match...

The other guys in the seniors advanced division had all the toughness and intensity I did...they also had better judo. Suddenly I was at the disadvantage, and it hurt mentally and physically.

Sometime 8 months into my drought I realized to get better at doing Judo I needed to do Judo.

So I'll never say don't wrestle, or crosstrain, but set your goals accordingly with a focus on what you want to achieve.

 

[shunyata]

If you only care about getting good at judo just start judo now.

If you have limited acess to scholastic wrestling and want to take advantage of it while you're in school, wrestle now.

If your goal is to crosstrain and later on compete in sub grappling, bjj, or mma then wrestling is valuable.

 

[Smato_rules]

Try both and do which one you like better if not both, don’t waste a year of your life

 

[ChickenBrother]

What are your goals?

My 4 years of varsity wrestling definatly gave me the mental toughness to train hard, the aggressiveness and the mental edge to compete before I started Judo.

I did well in novice division and earned Sankyu quickly. I was crushing newbies and hobbiests with sheer force. In hindsight it did nothing for me.

HOWEVER, relying on those same advantages probably hindered my overall growth in Judo. Once I started playing in the advanced division I was getting stomped...bad... competed for a year without winning a match...

The other guys in the seniors advanced division had all the toughness and intensity I did...they also had better judo. Suddenly I was at the disadvantage, and it hurt mentally and physically.

Sometime 8 months into my drought I realized to get better at doing Judo I needed to do Judo.

So I'll never say don't wrestle, or crosstrain, but set your goals accordingly with a focus on what you want to achieve.

I can strongly relate. HS varsity wrestler who went on to do 4 years on a college Judo team (because I wasn't good enough to wrestle in college but still wanted to compete). But like you, I relied on "wrestling in a gi" which worked great on Judo newbs until sankyu and then I was getting smoked by advanced Judoka who were actually good at Judo. Same as a good wrestler smashing BJJ blues but it doesn't work on purple+ unless you're actually good at BJJ (or if you're a high level wrestler).

But I'd advise a HS kid in the U.S. to participate in HS wrestling even if they want to focus on Judo or BJJ, because in the U.S. there is a deeper talent pool and overall better athletes competing in wrestling vs. Judo or BJJ. Steel sharpens steel. But in many countries outside the U.S. (and even in some U.S. cities), there are competition-focused Judo/BJJ gyms that train with the same intensity as U.S. wrestling programs and all else equal, I'd go with one of those gyms if one prefers that ruleset.

 

[SandisLL]

The answer depends on your training goals and the relative quality of instruction and training partners at each gym.

In the U.S. the most prominent grappling ruleset is folkstyle (scholastic) wrestling, followed by BJJ then probably freestyle wrestling and Judo way at the bottom. Anecdotally I think even Greco Roman wrestling (not very popular in the U.S.) is more popular than Judo.

Approx this.

It depends from area and so on ofc.

We for example have judo, freestyle and greco roman ...in genreal if you don't compete in tournaments then for them 0 sense about you. While they aren't bad ppl.
BJJ happens very brutal sandbagging stuff.
This is europe....
Once they had used oly level judoka ( had competed in Games ) for blue belt BJJ division.
One guy was on paper blue BJJ belt, while he was beast even for high level athletes. Pedro from Brazil had rolled with beast and told that guy is decent brown belt level for BJJ as minimum. Lesser from excepted in reality.
Paper is paper....blue...
He get brown. While for him not likely it had any sense cos he had background as competitive KBer and had earned for a living cos job in office. He was guy from da techStreetz when he was young teen.

 

[SandisLL]

We in europe don't have folkstyle wrestling.
We have greco roman, freestyle, judo, bjj, jjj and sambo type stuff.

 

[Rallarsvingare]

If you want to be good at judo you have to train judo, but wrestling training is better than no training at all. They still have a few things in common that you will practice in both like handfighting and balance.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Hi everyone
Is there any worth to training wrestling for a year before starting judo? Like picking up some wrestling habbits first? Would learning how to guard your back for example be something useful to practise before starting judo or will the habbits not matter much

100% yes.

 

[Normot]

Merab shows that Judoka who start wrestling as adults are the best MMA wrestlers apparently. But freal at a novice level doing any grappling sport will help another but ideally you do the actual sport.